I was surprised to hear the news today: HP is discontinuing the development of webOS devices.
Back at CES 2009, I thought webOS had a real chance at making a big splash in the smartphone market. I wasn’t alone. The new operating system from Palm looked flashy and responsive. Granted, most of us couldn’t get our hands on the Palm Pre at the show — Palm was very protective of its new smartphone. But the buzz was strong and it looked like Palm had a shot of competing against the iPhone and Android platforms.But Palm wasn’t able to capitalize on the goodwill generated at CES. The Palm Pre didn’t debut until June, 2009. By then, the public had mostly forgotten the excitement around the unveiling of the device six months earlier. The Palm Pre failed to make a big impression. Palm’s troubles didn’t end there. The company suffered a series of financial setbacks. Eventually, HP stepped in and acquired Palm. It looked like HP’s main interest was in the WebOS operating system.
Today, that interest seems to have disappeared. HP will no longer support webOS operations. The company’s statement says that it will look for different ways to optimize webOS software, though what that means exactly is beyond me. This does seem to be the tombstone on the grave of Palm, however. Chris and I did an episode about the history of Palm and its impact on the mobile device market. It’s hard to stress how instrumental Palm was in the pre-smartphone era. Palm’s story can serve as a reminder to all companies that being on top doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable — no one is really too big to fail.
While I don’t own a webOS device, I’m sad to see the operating system go out like this. More variety in the marketplace is a good thing — it keeps companies in an innovation cycle that ultimately benefits us as consumers.
Note: Another interesting part of the HP news is the possibility that the company will spin its PC business off as a separate company. Could HP be following in the footsteps of IBM?
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